Gower and Chaucer.
- Author/Editor
- Gasyle, Brian.
- Title
- Gower and Chaucer.
- Published
- Gastle, Brian. "Gower and Chaucer." In Ana Sáez-Hidalgo, Brian Gastle, and R. F. Yeager, eds. The Routledge Research Companion to John Gower (Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. 296-311.
- Review
- Gower and Chaucer have long been cited in tandem as foundational English poets. Gastle reviews the documentation on their personal acquaintanceship (296-98), treating skeptically the inference that they quarreled (300). Much scholarship surrounds the major narratives they held in common--the "Loathly Lady," Constance, and the rapist Tereus (298-302), with their potential for "gendered readings" (301). Common themes are reviewed, especially the world in decay (302) and the need to advise their king, especially on peacemaking (304). Both were "champions of the vernacular" as authoritative (305), and both explored the potential of "multiple narrative voices" including women's (305-06). Both were pioneers in English versification, a potential area for digital analysis (306). Gower especially imbued the voices of women with "Arion's restorative music" (307). [LBB. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 37.2.]
- Date
- 2017
- Gower Subjects
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Biography of Gower
Language and Word Studies
Style, Rhetoric, and Versification